EU says Italy's slower growth might trigger spending freeze

The European Commission will publish its new economic forecasts on May 7.

Italy may be forced to freeze some of its planned public expenditures this year as the country’s growth is slower than forecast, European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said on Saturday.
 

Brussels had predicted in February a meager 0.2 percent expansion in Italy this year, but Dombrovskis said that growth could turn out to be “even slower” as global and domestic factors had dampened the outlook.
 

A possible downward revision would further widen the gap with growth estimates made by Italy’s eurosceptic government, which based its free-spending 2019 budget on the assumption of a 1 percent expansion.
 

The European Commission